National News

Australian Idol winner spared conviction

Australian Idol winner Kate DeAraugo has been spared convictions for drug driving, possessing the illegal drug ice and carrying weapons.

DeAraugo, once a member of pop group the Young Divas, was given a 12-month community correction order and disqualified from driving for six months.

The 32-year-old was sentenced at Bendigo on Friday after pleading guilty to eight offences in October.

DeAraugo was charged with possessing a drug of dependence, namely ice, and drug driving at Shepparton on June 15.

She was also charged with two counts of possessing a controlled weapon, being a large-bladed knife and tomahawk.

The singer also breached her bail by not obeying an 11pm to 7am curfew, when she was found at a BP store at Kyabram, about 100 kilometres from her Bendigo home. Prosecutors withdrew a trafficking charge.

It was not her first brush with the law, having faced traffic and drug charges in Sydney in 2015.